New
York dairy herds produced 1.01 billion pounds of milk during December according
to Stephen Ropel, Director of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service,
New York Field office. Milk cows declined from the previous year resulting
in a slight decrease in milk production compared to December 2007. The number
of milk cows averaged 625 thousand head, down 1 thousand head from December
of the previous year. Milk per cow averaged 1,620 pounds, unchanged from
the December 2007 rate.

Preliminary annual milk production
in the Empire State during 2008 totaled 12.4 billion pounds. The annual average
number of milk cows, at 626,000 head, was down slightly from a year earlier.
Output per cow increased by 22 pounds to 19,325 pounds per cow. Final annual
milk production figures will be available February 19, 2009.

Dairy farmers in the Empire State
received an average of $16.00 per hundredweight of milk sold during December,
down $1.40 from November and $6.30 below December a year ago.

Milk production in the 23 major States during December totaled 14.6 billion
pounds, up 1.5 percent from December 2007. November revised production at
14.0 billion pounds, was up 1.3 percent November 2007. The November revision
represented a decrease of 11 million pounds or 0.1 percent from last month's
preliminary production estimate.

Production per cow in the 23 major States averaged 1,726 pounds for December,
8 pounds above December 2007. The number of milk cows on farms in the 23
major States was 8.48 million head, 90,000 head more than December 2007, and
7,000 head more than November 2008.